A World Without People - In Focus

For a number of reasons, natural and human, people have recently evacuated or otherwise abandoned a number of places around the world -- large and small, old and new. Gathering images of deserted areas into a single photo essay, one can get a sense of what the world might look like if humans were to vanish from the planet altogether. Collected here are recent scenes from nuclear-exclusion zones, blighted urban neighborhoods, towns where residents left to escape violence, unsold developments built during the real estate boom, ghost towns, and more. [41 photos] Use j/k keys or ←/→ to navigate Choose: A tree grows from the top of a chimney in an abandoned factory yard in Luque, on the outskirts of Asuncion, Paraguay, on October 2 , 2011. A bust of Confucius rests at an abandoned workshop in the town of Dangcheng in Quyang county, 240 km (150 miles) southwest of Beijing, on December 7, 2011. Ivy grows over a street in Tomioka town, Fukushima, northeastern Japan, on August 19, 2011.

17 Abandoned Places Around The World That You Probably Didn’t Know AboutAbandoned cities — even buildings — capture our imagination. From their history to their current dilapidated state, they never fail to invoke the curiosity within us. Who lived there? Why is it abandoned? Why did they settle there in the first place? 1.Learning from the slums (1/2):literature and urban renewal“Slumdog Millionaire” is the movie of the year. Its story of a young guy from Mumbai’s slum of Dharavi, who manages to change its destiny through the “Who wants to be a Millionaire” game has charmed many people, including the Oscars’ jury, who awarded the movie with 8 prizes. At the same time, the movie has created a debate around slums and how the movie portrays them.

Breathtaking World of Ice under a Frozen River (6 pics)There is a beauty that lies underneath the icy Tianuksa River in Leningradskaya Oblast, Russia. An otherworldly cavern of layered ice and glistening crystalline forming under the surface of the river. This phenomenon of a place was discovered by 55-year-old Russian photographer Yuri Ovchinnikov and his son completely by accident. Air gaps create a two foot gap allowing the brave explorers to carefully crawl into the cave in hopes that the ice would not crack beneath them. These photos express a risk and a dedication to allow others to see such an amazing unseen world. It is just one of the thousands of posts that we have on the AdiTone.com.

Amazing Places To Experience Around the Globe (Part 3)Devetashkata Cave - Bulgaria Ben Bulben at County Sligo, Ireland Shark Island - Sydney Baatara Gorge Waterfall, Tannourine - Lebanon Abel Tasman National Park - New ZealandAbandoned Buildings in New York CityHart Island The empty pavilion has a room filled with used shoes and a hall that has tree branches growing inside the building. There is also an empty, decrepit chapel that is creepy as they come. Brooklyn Navy Yard Hospital Completely covered in white paint, the building is as beautiful as it is creepy.

Lagos / KoolhaasLagos' population is expected to reach 24 million people by 2020, which would make it the third largest city in the world. Every hour, 21 new inhabitants set out to start a life in the city, a life that is highly unpredictable and requires risk taking, networking and improvisation as essential strategies for survival. Rem Koolhaas - winner of architecture's Nobel, the Pritzker Architecture Prize - is a Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at Harvard. For the past four years Koolhaas and students from The Harvard Project on the City have come to Lagos regularly to research the type of urban environment that is produced by explosive population growth. The Project on the City is framed by two concepts: academia's bewilderment with new forms of accelerated urbanization in developing regions and the maelstrom of redevelopment in existing urban areas; and, second, the failure of the design professions to adequately cope with these changes. "Highly Recommended!

National Geographic Photo Contest 2011 - Alan Taylor - In FocusNational Geographic is currently holding its annual photo contest, with the deadline for submissions coming up on November 30. For the past nine weeks, the society has been gathering and presenting galleries of submissions, encouraging readers to vote for them as well. National Geographic was kind enough to let me choose among its entries from 2011 for display here on In Focus. Gathered below are 45 images from the three categories of People, Places, and Nature, with captions written by the individual photographers. [45 photos] Use j/k keys or ←/→ to navigate Choose: Many people pilgrimage to Uluru, but what is seen there often depends on where you've come from.Top 20 Earth Pictures found on Stumble UponEverybody knows that Stumbleupon is an great source for beautiful photography, nature, pets, arts and much more. They have millions of users and they are probably the most wide used source for finding quality content. Today, we collected 20 popular photographs from Stumbleupon.

abandoned buildingsLast weekend my friend and I took a step into some very trashed ruins of what was once the worlds largest outdoor pool — the Fleishhacker Pool. This behemoth opened in 1925, held 6 million gallons and could accommodate 10,000 swimmers. All that is left now is the 450 foot long pool house. The pool was paved over years ago by the SF Zoo.